Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The week on patrol, April 4-8, 2011

I rode solo for most of the week. Monday was the final day of the
Final Four mobilization and I was off on Friday.

The championship game of the Final Four took place Monday night at
Reliant Stadium. There were a few more calls than a regular Monday
night, but not many.

I checked by with J on a disturbance at a restaurant. It was over a
door ding. A female was sitting in her car when another vehicle drove
up and parked. The male exiting that car slammed his door into the
female's car. The male apologized, but the female did not like the
male's attitude and wanted a report made. After J explained that an
accident report would be made and that it could possibly effect her
insurance rates, she decided that an apology was good enough. The male
then gave her another lack luster apology and we left it at that.

Then I was dispatched to a welfare check in government housing. The
call slip said that two kids, ages 7 and 9, had been left at home
alone. I knocked on the front door and there was no answer. I called
the person who had called the police and after I identified myself,
they hung up. I guess it was not that important to them. There was
nothing else that I could do, so I left and cleared the call.

Later in the shift, I checked by on a disturbance with L. The call
slip said that a female had found her husband in bed with another MAN
and that she was very upset. Understandable. When we arrived, she was
indeed very upset and very drunk. Shocking. She said that she had
found him naked with another woman. I guess the call taker was trying
to make it more interesting. She told us that she lived with two men,
so she was no saint. The "husband" who cheated was currently sleeping
behind the apartment in an abandoned car. He was not causing a
disturbance, but the woman was causing problems. So, L told her to go
inside or she was going to jail, problem solved.

On Tuesday, I was the print unit. It was a slow night with very little
going on. There were no print calls to run, so I checked by with J on
an accident. My department's policy on minor accidents says to give
the citizen a "blue form" which is an accident report that the citizen
fills out and sends into the state if the accident meets certain
criteria. The vehicles have to be drivable, drivers must have a valid
license and insurance, no injuries, and the damage has to be less than
$1000. This was a minor accident on the freeway that could have been
blue formed except neither driver had a driver's license. Outstanding.

Wednesday night I rode with A. I was absolutely dead tired and once
again it was very slow at the beginning of the shift. There was not
any foot or vehicle traffic in the area. A drove around the district a
lot for the first two hours of the shift. She likes to drive, and I
have gotten used to being the passenger with all of the nights that I
have spent training rookies, so I do not mind.

We were dispatched to theft in progress at a construction site. The
guy on site said that a black male took some copper wire out of the
dumpster. The wire was indeed trash. The guy told the black male to
stop and leave the wire, and he refused. That irritated him and that
is why he called the police, because a man took trash out of the
dumpster and refused to leave it. We "checked the area" for the black
guy, but did not find him.

An assault in progress dropped at a local gay bar. The call slip said
that a large fight was going on in the parking lot. We arrived and
there was nothing going on, crickets. While we were there in the
parking lot, the same call came in 3 more times. Fake calls are very
annoying.

We checked by on a suicide in progress, a possible jumper. The
girlfriend called in that her boyfriend was on a bridge and thinking
about jumping. A bunch of units descended on the area, but no one
found the boyfriend. We finally asked where the boyfriend lived. We
got the address and went to his apartment. His mom answered the door
and acted like we just woken her up. She then told us that her son was
not home. We told her why we were there and looking for her son. Then
she told us that the girlfriend frequently makes false reports
regarding her son. We asked her to call him. She went to call him and
then returned to the door. She said that he is fact home and asleep.
So, we headed upstairs to go check on him. He played possum for awhile
and tried to act like he was just waking up. We got him awake and
start talking to him. Eventually, he finally told us that yes, he was
on the bridge earlier and was thinking about jumping. The primary unit
transported him to a psychiatric center for evaluation and did an
Emergency Detention Order. We later found out that the mom knew that
he had snuck out and was trying to help him fool us. Great parenting.

I was by myself on Thursday. There were not very many units. I was
dispatched to major accident. N and K took it for me, which was very
nice. I checked by and helped out. One driver totally blew a stop sign
and t-boned another car. Usually, that means that the driver was
drunk. Not this time. The driver said that he was looking at the green
light up ahead and completely missed the stop sign. Luckily, no one
was injured.

Later, I was dispatched to a suspicious vehicle. The call slip said
that there was a male inside a vehicle talking on a cell phone. This
was at 2:30 AM. Who is up to call the police? Insomniacs I guess. Go
to sleep, and why is someone sitting in a car suspicious? I spoke with
the "suspicious male". He said that he was trying to say goodbye to
his boyfriend. Not exactly a national security crisis. Oh well.

I was off on Friday night.

That concludes another week on patrol.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

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